Automated watering system

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The plants watering setup uses an esp32 microcontroller board which is connected to a 8 channel relay board. The relays switch on 5V water pumps via buttons on a smartphone app. Soil moisture sensors are also connected to the plants that measure the soil moisture at regular intervals and show it as a percentage on the app. A temperature and humidity sensor namely he DHT11 is also installed to collect weather data. The ESP32 is connected to the home wifi and also added to the software Home Asisstant which is installed on a raspberry pi central hub. The raspberry pi acts like a central hub and the esp32 as a node.

The reason I built this was becaue I found it really cumbersome begging my neighbour to water my plants, every time I was away from home for over a month. So i decided to build one with really cheap with off the shelf components. I didn’t want a system that would water my plants completely automatically, I actually wanted to water them myself depending on which plant actually needed it. Depending on the soil moisture readings, I pressed a button on the app and this switched on the pumps for a set duration of time and so I had full control and also enjoyed watering my plants, as I was in another country.

I designed the enclosure and electronics mounts in Onshape. The esp32 casing was designed to be 3d printed, since it had to be a little complex. The rest of the enclosure was designed to be laser cut. I cut out the casing out of balsa wood and then spray painted it so it had some form of water resistance. Connectors were attached on one side to attach the 3 wire capacitive soil moisture sensors and the other side had the female connectors for the 5V pumps.

TailVPN was used to connect to my home internet when I was outside my home WiFi. This allowed med to water my plants when I was on vacation for 2 months.

The esphome code for the project is below. I have covered some keys and passwords.

ESP32 Home code

esphome:
  name: esphome-web-######
  friendly_name: MyPlants
  on_boot:
  - switch.turn_off: relay_1
  - switch.turn_off: relay_2
  - switch.turn_off: relay_3
  - switch.turn_off: relay_4

esp32:
  board: esp32dev
  framework:
    type: arduino

# Enable logging
logger:

# Enable Home Assistant API
api:
  encryption:
    key: "#####" //covered

ota:


wifi:
  ssid: !secret wifi_ssid
  password: !secret wifi_password

  # Enable fallback hotspot (captive portal) in case wifi connection fails
  ap:
    ssid: "Esphome-Web-#####" //covered
    password: "#####" //covered

captive_portal:

output:
  - platform: gpio
    pin: GPIO2
    id: builtin_led
    inverted: False

interval:
  - interval: 1s
    then:
      if:
        condition:
          wifi.connected:
        then:
          - output.turn_on: builtin_led
        else:
          - output.turn_off: builtin_led

  - interval: 15s
    then:
    - if:
        condition:
          wifi.connected:
        then:
        else:
          - switch.turn_off: relay_1
          - switch.turn_off: relay_2
          - switch.turn_off: relay_3
          - switch.turn_off: relay_4
  

sensor:
  - platform: adc
    pin: A0
    attenuation: auto
    id: "adcRaw_Sensor_Data_BOT"
    accuracy_decimals: 2
    name: "Sensor_Voltage_BOT"
    update_interval: 3600s
  - platform: adc
    pin: A0
    attenuation: auto
    id: "adcMoisture_BOT"
    accuracy_decimals: 1
    unit_of_measurement: '%'
    filters:
      - calibrate_linear:
        - 2.456 -> 0
        - 0.970  -> 100.0  
    name: "Moisture_Big_Olive_Tree"
    icon: mdi:water-percent
    update_interval: 3600s
  - platform: wifi_signal
    name: "Plant_WiFi_Signal_Sensor"
    update_interval: 60s

  - platform: adc
    pin: A3
    attenuation: auto
    id: "adcRaw_Sensor_Data_SOT"
    accuracy_decimals: 2
    name: "Sensor_Voltage_SOT"
    update_interval: 3600s
  - platform: adc
    pin: A3
    attenuation: auto
    id: "adcMoisture_SOT"
    accuracy_decimals: 1
    unit_of_measurement: '%'
    filters:
      - calibrate_linear:
        - 2.456 -> 0
        - 0.970  -> 100.0  
    name: "Moisture_Small_Olive_Tree"
    icon: mdi:water-percent
    update_interval: 3600s

  - platform: adc
    pin: A6
    attenuation: auto
    id: "adcRaw_Sensor_Data_FB1"
    accuracy_decimals: 2
    name: "Sensor_Voltage_FB1"
    update_interval: 3600s
  - platform: adc
    pin: A6
    attenuation: auto
    id: "adcMoisture_FB1"
    accuracy_decimals: 1
    unit_of_measurement: '%'
    filters:
      - calibrate_linear:
        - 2.456 -> 0
        - 0.970  -> 100.0  
    name: "Moisture_Flowerbed_1"
    icon: mdi:water-percent
    update_interval: 3600s

  - platform: adc
    pin: A7
    attenuation: auto
    id: "adcRaw_Sensor_Data_FB2"
    accuracy_decimals: 2
    name: "Sensor_Voltage_FB2"
    update_interval: 3600s
  - platform: adc
    pin: A7
    attenuation: auto
    id: "adcMoisture_FB2"
    accuracy_decimals: 1
    unit_of_measurement: '%'
    filters:
      - calibrate_linear:
        - 2.456 -> 0
        - 0.970  -> 100.0  
    name: "Moisture_Flowerbed_2"
    icon: mdi:water-percent
    update_interval: 3600s
	
	- platform: dht
		pin: D2
		temperature:
			name: "Living Room Temperature"
		humidity:
			name: "Living Room Humidity"
		update_interval: 60s

switch:
  - platform: gpio
    name: "Water_BOT"
    id: relay_1
    pin: 19
    icon: mdi:watering-can
    inverted: true

  - platform: gpio
    name: "Water_SOT"
    id: relay_2
    pin: 18
    icon: mdi:watering-can
    inverted: true

  - platform: gpio
    name: "Water_FB1"
    id: relay_3
    pin: 5
    icon: mdi:watering-can
    inverted: true

  - platform: gpio
    name: "Water_FB2"
    id: relay_4
    pin: 17
    icon: mdi:watering-can
    inverted: true